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Music Group – October 2012

Ocular Audio Experiment - The Witches Whispering Tomes (Pt 1) 2012

So after enduring two tracks of psychedelic drone with very little melody and even less dynamic worth I got to track 3 and thought, “If this were vinyl, I’d immediately play Their Majesties Tapestry of Gloom at 45 rpm and see if it was any more tolerable”. After that amused me for a few seconds, my next thought was, “Make it stop!” This CD reminded of a word once used in a Casey Casem off-mike tirade captured by his engineer and distributed to other radio folks around the country…Ponderous, man, ponderous! OK…now I feel bad for being so negative. There are some positives here. First, I admire their cleverness with regard to song titles…”Blow My Head Off” was exactly what I felt like doing when I finally got to that track, and following it with “The Slow Road to Hell” was perfectly descriptive. Second, I really like the CD cover artwork. And most positive is that we didn’t get part 2 with this. 1

The Allman Brothers Band – The Allman Brothers Band (1969)

Listening to this with 20-20 hindsight was both enlightening and a little frustrating. It’s amazing to me that the signature sound of the band, Duane’s slide guitar, isn’t heard until halfway through the album, in “Trouble No More”. I’d also forgotten how great a lead guitar duo Dickey Betts and Duane without slide were. It is perfectly illustrated in “It’s Not My Cross to Bear”. The frustration comes in knowing how awesome a “jam band” they were, and having to listen to some of these great tracks fade out long before they really should have ended. Hearing this first effort with the original line-up when it was all fresh was terrific, though it does make me hate motorcycles even more as I get older. 41/2

Bob Dylan – Tempest (2012)

The last time I was excited about a Bob Dylan Album it was “Time Out Of Mind” and before that, it was “Blood on the Tracks”…there were a lot of years between those two, and I approached this CD with a little trepidation, but my fears were unfounded and what I think we have here is a great slice of Americana, albeit pretty dark. It’s mostly a CD that you have to be in a quiet mood for - Duquense Whistle and Narrow Way being the exception – but the more I listen to it, the more I like it as a cohesive body of work. I think his road band does the music justice and the addition of David Hidalgo from Los Lobos gives it that extra touch – a desperate, sometimes sad sound that fits the lyrical content to a tee. 3 ½